TEXT: Genesis 3:1-5

SUBJECT: Henry on Man’s First Temptation #2

Tonight, with the Lord’s favor, we’ll move on in the Puritan study we began last week; it’s called Matthew Henry on Man’s First Temptation. The Book we’re using to guide is Henry’s great Commentary on the Whole Bible. If you have it, read along as we go, for Matthew Henry is always good for the soul.

Last time, we looked at the circumstances of the temptations—the main characters and where it took place. The Tempter is Satan who was then occupying the body of a snake. Henry thinks it was a flying serpent that came down to earth with a fake message from heaven. We can’t be sure about that—but it makes sense—for the devil is often "transformed into an angel of light". His lying words often have the ring of truth; his temptations often sound like the commands of God.

The one tempted was Eve, Adam’s wife, and the only sinless woman to ever live. If a lady without original sin, without bad habits, and without a long line of wicked examples is subject to the devils cunning ways, then we are too! Only more so. How careful we ought to be about temptation! In another place Henry says,

And that’s the point: our bodies (and souls) are made of spiritual gunpowder—and the devil is tossing out sparks right and left! We ought to watch against his evil ways, pray against them, and do everything we can to fortify ourselves against him. If Eve can sin—you can too.

The first thing to note is the sameness of Satan’s temptations. The devil is not a creative thinker, but is quite satisfied with using the same old temptations over and over again. The reason he does that is not because he’s lazy or stupid, but because the same old temptations keep on working! If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it! When it comes to getting God’s people to sin, the old temptation ain’t broke!

Think of a common sin like gossip. How does the devil get us to talk about people as often as we do? He does it by telling us that we’re not really gossiping; no, we’re concerned about them! We want to help them! We love them dearly, but…

He also tells us there’s no danger in it—no real danger that is. It won’t really hurt anyone to talk behind his back; and, of course, there’s no way it will ever get back to him! So, what’s the harm?

He also tells us that some good may come out of it. I tell you Harry’s fault so I can get your advice on how to help him. Of course, I’ve talked to you about Harry for years, though I’ve never said anything to him about it.

You can see it, can’t you? It’s the same old same old. The devil isn’t creative because he doesn’t have to be! He can get by with the same old bag of tricks.

If the devil is an unoriginal tempter, then we can find out what he’s up to and prepare for it. We find out by (1) reading the Bible, (2) reviewing our own temptations, and (3) talking to mature and godly friends.

You’ve heard the saying, "Fool me once, shame on you; fool me twice, shame on me". How shameful it is that we are not fooled once or twice, but over and over again by the same old temptations. At least con men have to change their victims! The devil doesn’t; he cons the same people a million times a day!

If you have followed the two Gulf Wars, you know the American troops did not rush across the Iraqi border; no, what they did was soften up the enemy by a bombing campaign which was followed by an invasion.

In the same way, the devil didn’t start tempting Eve by telling her to break the Law of God and get herself and her husband into trouble with their Maker! If he had, we’d all be in the Garden of Eden today. He began by softening her up with doubt, a wondering about God’s Word and His goodness. Henry says,

Observe the devil’s way: Did God say it at all? Don’t you think He’s being kind of mean about it? What are you, a sissy girl? We both know that God is good and generous, therefore, there’s no way He meant to keep you from the yummiest fruit in the Garden!

Do these sound familiar? They do to me; they’re the same tricks he uses on me every day. Is it a sin at all? Some say it is, but it’s probably not and until I’m sure it is, I’m going to do it! Why is the Lord so strict; He lets other people do it, why not me? I want to be religious, but do I want to be a fanatic—I don’t want to be holier than God, do I? Gotta beware of legalism, of course. The Lord’s Law cannot contradict His goodness, therefore, it must be okay—whatever the Pharisees say about it.

That’s the classic temptation: the devil begins by throwing salt in our eyes, by making our once clear vision blurry. We begin to wonder what God has said; we begin to pit one verse against another or His Word against His character; we start listening to others—listening too much—not because they’re right—but because they’re telling us what we want to hear!

What do we do about this? How to we see through the doubts he brings to mind? We do it with knowledge of God’s Word—real knowledge and not what we’ve always heard and what everyone else believes. Every believer is accountable to God—directly to God! This means we have to find out what He has said.

To do this, we have to separate our studies from our desires. That is not easy to do. But do it we must. We mustn’t say, I want the Bible to teach this, and so it does! That’s what happens when we read the Word selectively. For example, people who want the Lord to be soft on divorce read some verse and explain others away; people who want Him to be hard on divorce do the same thing, though they explain away the other set of verses. But the fact is, God says something about divorce and we cannot afford to explain away any passage on the subject. Even those that pop our balloons and make God (in the eyes of some) to be either mean or loose. He is neither! He is both just and merciful and the two do not contradict each other.

If you want to resist the devil’s temptations, start with finding out what God has said.

After making Eve wonder about the command of God, Satan gets her to think she’s in no danger. Even if she eats the fruit, she’ll be okay—either God won’t know she did it or He won’t carry out His punishment. Henry has it:

The promises of God are true—including the ones we don’t like. The Lord is forgiving—immensely, eternally, and wonderfully forgiving! But no one makes a fool of Him! He does not forgive to make us sin; He forgives to make us repent.

When the Lord says sin is a bad thing and will cause you pain, He means it. Unrepented of, it brings down the wrath of God as it did on Adam and Eve. Repented of, we escape His wrath, but it still hurts—us and other people too. The man who drinks heavily for twenty years and then repents does not go to hell. But he may well lose his family, his career, and his health.

Lust leads to sin and sin leads to death. That’s what the Lord says in the Book of James. Satan says otherwise, but he’s a liar and the father of lies. You’d be wiser to believe the Father of Truth.

Finally, the devil promises that eating the forbidden fruit will be good for Eve. Henry says,

Was he right? Did Adam and Eve live to enjoy their disobedience? Did it open their eyes? Did they become like God? Did they know good and evil the way the Lord does?

No, the story says otherwise. Sin blinded them, made them like Satan, and turned them into fools. Just the opposite of what the devil said! And precisely what God said it would do to them.

Can the Lord bring good out of evil? Yes He can—praise the Lord He can! I know a woman who was converted partly as a result of abusing her children! I know a man who was saved in jail after committing a great crime! I know a man who found a Father in God after his own father—and step father—abandoned him. Much good comes from evil! The goodness of God says so, the wisdom of God makes it happen.

But evil is not good. And we are responsible for obeying the Lord—and nothing else. What He can do with our sins is His business--—not ours! Our business is to trust and obey.

Great good came out of Eve’s disobedience. The Fall resulted in the Incarnation of God, of His atoning death, His resurrection from the dead, and His Lordship at the Right Hand of the Father. The Garden of Eden will one day be improved upon—by the City of God!

But this is not what Satan was getting at and not what Eve was aiming for either! His temptation and her sin were wicked through and through and responsible for every death in the history of the world, all the tears, all the suffering, all the disease, all the disasters, the wars, the whole creation groans because of what they did!

God turned it to good, but He didn’t do that to make sin seem all right. No, the death of Christ shows how bad sin really is—and how destructive. If it killed the Son of God, sin must be far worse that we think it is. And so, let’s repent of our sins and live lives of obedience by the grace and wisdom the Lord gives us for Christ’s sake.